Same-day stories are produced the same day as the newscast. They require a two-person crew, one as the reporter and the other as photographer. During the Fall 2011 semester, to accommodate the need for two same-day stories in the newscast, we will assign SOJO reporters to be the Same-Day Photographers.

Here is the best way to shoot the same-day story in the field.

Call ahead of time to set up interviews and do
pre-interviews to gather information that will help you with your on-cam
interview, story content and shooting. You can even call the night before
if it is a story that can be planned ahead of time. If it is a story that
comes up in the morning, make calls as soon as you can. If no one answers
or you don’t get a call back immediately, go to the location and try to
find people in person.

Gather background information from the
interviewees – facts and basic info. Save your on-camera questions for
when the tape is rolling.People usually give their best answers when they haven’t been
preparing what they’ll say.

Work together to find backgrounds that are
related to the subject matter, are well lit (or take the light kit) and
relatively quiet.You’ll use
one or two backgrounds for your interviews and another for your opening
and closing standup. Your opening and closing standup should be shot in
the same location to create the “look live” appearance.There is no standup in the
middle.

Shoot your interviews first. That will help you
decide what broll you need and your story focus.Make sure to get the person’s name ON PAPER.Then you won’t have shuffle
through the tape to find their name for the cg’s. That slows you down
tremendously at a time when every second is important.

Photographer shoots broll while reporter makes a
rough plan/outline for how the story will be written/organized. FIRST -
write anchor intro and tag. It can be a very rough draft, but if you do it
this way, you’ll focus your story and you’ll make sure the anchor reads
the lead, rather than having a double lead – one for them and one for the
start of your package. By writing the anchor intro – you will make it much
easier on yourself to then write the rest of the story. Next, write your opening
and closing stand-ups. You may elect to do voice over in the middle of
your story. But…you need to record that voice over in the field, not in
the edit booth when you get back. Think about what soundbites you’ll use
and in what order. You’ll make a final decision on that when you look at
the bites in the edit bay.

Shoot stand-ups and, if you choose, record voice
over in the field. (You do not need voice over in the middle…you can
simple string together a few bites between your first and last stand-ups.)

Writing/Editing LLPKGS for
NewsTeam

Here is the best way to complete the assignment after
you have shot the story in the field.

Quickly watch the video, to make sure everything
worked and so you know what shots and bites you have.

Choose your sound bite or bites. Note the
timecode where they are on the tape, transcribe the whole bite if time
permits.If not, write down incue
and outcue of what the person says. Write down the total length of the
bite.

While the photographer/editor starts logging and
capturing shots, the reporter should return to the newsroom (Rm. 209) and write
your script for the anchor intro/tag, cgs. Turn in the cgs with the
location and names. You can add the cg times to the anchor intro script
later, once the story is edited. You DO NOT need to type out the
taped script for a LLPKG. But it is a good idea to make a rough outline
with the order of the soundbites and timecode to help the editing process.

Collaborate with editor on the video choices story
structure.

Get cg times and total package run time.Type those on the anchor intro
script.If you don’t think
you will finish until after 11:15, turn in your script without the times.
You’ll have to hand write the times on the scripts for the director and
technical director at the studio.